Can't say I'm surprised by this. The Phantom Pain will be the first entry in the Metal Gear series to have a fully featured open world, and Kojima did want his new engine to have the capability to handle extreme nonlinear environments.

Personally, I would be ecstatic for an open world Silent Hill. Being able to explore every nook and cranny of the town has, from what I can recall, been a pretty big desire from a good portion of the Silent Hill community.

Nice. I liked that part about Downpour, where you had the option to explore the town rather than follow a linear storyline all the way through. Hopefully in the new game they'll be able to expand on that more.

The problem is, open world in Silent Hill doesn't mean a lot. Being able to explore every building could be detrimental to the experience, and even if you could, what would be put in there? Downpour sort of tried this and it didn't really do much for the gameplay. It's also significantly more expensive to develop such a game because you need a stupid amount of assets, unless you repeat them like crazy just like Downpour (which was one of the most annoying things about the game.)

All I am expecting is a linear-ish story, perhaps with a bit of choice in what order you complete the levels, and a few doors opened in the town for you to enter and explore. Silent Hill is not an RPG and open world just isn't that good for it.

As long as it's not a huge map and "post-campaign" isn't in this open-world then things should be fine. Just imagine the player finishing the story, getting the ending and then said player is still free to explore the game after the credits... It just doesn't work for SH.

I like open world things when done well, but not everything needs to be open world. I didn't think MGS needed to go open world and I don't think SH needs to either. Some types of games benefit from a linear design, despite how some people have begun treating linearity as a negative.

That being said, I loved Downpour and one of the things I loved the most about it was exploring the town and doing the side quests. If they do something like that but add more to it, then I'd be very fine with that.

Plus, I really don't want to have to hear people saying "Skyrim Hill" if it's an open world game. You know they will.

Semi-open world would be better, IMO. Open world either means a lack of focus, which would be detrimental to the story, or crappy mission based gameplay. I don't want either of those things. Take the Dark Souls / Super Metroid approach, have a critical path with some side areas to explore and maybe the potential for sequence breaking. Or what also might work is a plot where you have to gather up a set amount of mcguffins, which allows you to takes areas in any order.

I like open world things when done well, but not everything needs to be open world. I didn't think MGS needed to go open world and I don't think SH needs to either. Some types of games benefit from a linear design, despite how some people have begun treating linearity as a negative.

That being said, I loved Downpour and one of the things I loved the most about it was exploring the town and doing the side quests. If they do something like that but add more to it, then I'd be very fine with that.

Plus, I really don't want to have to hear people saying "Skyrim Hill" if it's an open world game. You know they will.

I don't think MGS is open world in the way that most people are thinking it will be, from what it sounds like the world is open, but you're there doing missions. I don't think Kojima would make Silent Hill totally open world, but giving room for exploration would be good.

This link has been posted before. Just FYI this website might not be a reliable source of info, considering nobody else has reported this and there has been no other Q & A with Kojima outside of his appearences at the Sony and MGSV gala with Keighley and one Konami Q&A with submissions from their Facebook page.

I agree with Tillerman that the game should ony be semi-open. I liked the structure in Downpour but the side-quests felt too obvious and gamey. If there are side-quests in Silent Hills they shouldn't be labelled as such and there should be more incentive to compete them than a trophy.

Desiring 'Open World' for Silent Hill, just means that sections and areas aren't sectioned off with completely different loading areas that makes traversal seamless.

Games like GTA and Red Dead are more correctly called 'Open World Sandboxes' where you can pretty much do anything and keep playing.

MGSV is following the Peace Walker model in that you go places from a hub only with very large maps and there will be side missions there.

What FOX will basically provide is the experience Downpour was going for, where you can seamlessly go between areas.

SH will obviously not need to be as big as GTA or Afghanistan. It'll be a much smaller town. And even with an 'Open World' or rather an open-level design with side-missions like Downpour had, areas can still be artificially sectioned off to keep a linear flow going.

Being open-world doesn't necessarily mean the game will offer what GTA of MGSV do. It's just an idea that the town is an open level for more seamless traversal and exploration, where perhaps you can seamlessly go indoors and outdoors with minimal to no-loading.

We still have absolutely no idea what Kojima has in mind though, so most likely only the outdoors part is 'open' when when entering indoors or going to 'other places' these will be separate sections and not part of one seamless map.

A large open SH game sounds nice. Linear gameplay is annoying. It shouldn't be too different from any other SH game other than being able to walk all over the game world. I remember how stuck I got on the first SH walking all over town. That would really suck in a GTA size SH. Bring it on! lol

Personally, I'm sick of open world stuff. I don't want freedom anymore. I've had my fill of it, really. I'm not even being facetious. I prefer linearity--it results in a more focused experience with less empty, shallow filler.

Take me from point A to point B, like in older SH games. Sure, there can be nooks and crannies to explore for extra medkits or an Easter egg or two, but don't waste time on ghost side stories or fetch quests. I feel they add little to the game and divert attention away from the main storyline.

Personally, I'm sick of open world stuff. I don't want freedom anymore. I've had my fill of it, really. I'm not even being facetious. I prefer linearity--it results in a more focused experience with less empty, shallow filler.

Take me from point A to point B, like in older SH games. Sure, there can be nooks and crannies to explore for extra medkits or an Easter egg or two, but don't waste time on ghost side stories or fetch quests. I feel they add little to the game and divert attention away from the main storyline.

I'm in total agreement here. Linearity is a storytelling tool as much as a gameplay tool. I wouldn't mind having a different ending if the player explored more, a la Silent Hill 1, but the "central hub with spokes" (the Room) kind of kills the narrative flow for me.

I would love to be able to just explore silent hill freely, but it would need to be done very carefully. I think I would go just a bit more open than sh2 while still stopping you from spoiling the surprises. The problem I have with open sandbox games is I can't resist free roaming and experimenting so much that by the time I get back to story mode I have the game figured out and nothing surprises me.

We wouldn't have GTA-like elements; I would hope we wouldn't have (human) pedestrians roaming the street or cars to drive. Don't waste processing power on physics sandbox stuff....

What open world elements could possibly added? Day/night cycles could work if done right, as long as Silent Hill is never blue again (I hate when they do that). There could be a great dread factor of trying to get where you're going before the sun goes down and it gets pitch black like certain outdoor scenes in sh2.

Even collect-em-all puzzles like the picture scraps in PT could be a non-intrusive bonus for gamers without negatively affecting the game. I think it was very neatly integrated and apparently isn't necessary to beat the game. Maybe little hidden secrets around the town could give extra back story or just added creeps.

The town itself could be freely explorable with map leading to your objectives like sh2 (a pattern is emerging) and as story dictates, they can just have something change (you find a key to a locked area, a road becomes a cliff). So basically, like sh2, but more freedom to do "urban exploration" if you really want to. If done right, the open world would be so scary players will want to go to their objectives to get the hell out of it.

And with Silent Hill, the designers have the advantage of being able to suddenly change the environment however they please just to mess with or nudge the player in a certain direction.

I think I've just talked myself into it. Just please don't show me all the good stuff right away. Make me work for it.